Gabriel knows that Nick used to work in a casino, a casino that they're planning to rob, and they want Nick to tell them all about the casino's security. Of course Rudy is not Nick, he's just pretending to be. So he's got a problem, because Gabriel wouldn't let him live if he thought he wasn't Nick, but on the other hand, if he thinks he is Nick, he'll want that information... information that Rudy doesn't have. There follow a few scenes in which Gabriel becomes very agitated and keeps deciding to kill Rudy and then changes his mind again. Meanwhile Rudy is trying to convince Ashley that he's not Nick, but without Gabriel finding out. Now all this sounds totally confusing, and it is, but it's still entertaining. For a while, anyway.
Many films that I watch get better after I've seen them a few times. Reindeer Games is not like that. The more I think about it, the worse it gets. I don't particularly want to see it again, but if it comes on TV I'll probably watch it. It's has a strange attraction that I can't describe, a kind of interesting painfulness. I enjoyed watching Gabriel get irritated. He's the kind of bad guy that deserves to be in a film like this. It serves him right. I didn't enjoy Ashley's attack of multiple personalities, however. She's one character when she's privately with Rudy, and another in the presence of her brother. And then she changes again, and again, and near the end the whole story is negated in a 'surprising twist' that quite frankly doesn't seem possible. How is it that unlikely characters always manage to turn up at the right time in the plot, even though they're out in the middle of nowhere, and none of them has a cellphone? Yet, just when the plot requires it, a guy appears who begins to explain what the real story is, just before he plans to kill Rudy. And now, Mr. Bond, I'm going to show you around my secret base...
Believe it or not, I kind of liked this film, but probably not for any of the right reasons.